Refurbished Cell Phones – Environmentally Friendly?
It’s everywhere – in the news, in the community, even in popular advertising campaigns – the environment is a hot topic. People everywhere are looking for ways to “go green” and are learning that they can make more environmentally friendly decisions in nearly every area of their life. Surprisingly, those high-tech devices that we all can’t seem to leave home without are no exception. That’s right, even cell phones give you a chance to be eco-friendly. I’m not talking about switching to paperless billing (although that is a good idea, too), though. What I’m talking about is refurbished cell phones. Used cell phones help reduce waste and the pollution associated with manufacturing new cell phones. When you consider that over 100 million cell phones are replaced every year in the US alone, you can see that we have an opportunity to make a big impact. The biggest problem with cell phones comes to light when we go to dispose of them. Cell phones, like most electronics, do not belong in landfills. They don’t biodegrade and they contain chemicals in them that can be harmful of they make their way in to the soil, waterways, or even the air via incineration.
